


Its Make Believe Until It’s Only a Matter of Time

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: When We're Together [5]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 01:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2410007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She mentioned something about Grannies Gone Wild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Its Make Believe Until It’s Only a Matter of Time

**Author's Note:**

> 5/7/2010 The title comes from the Billy Joel song _A Matter of Trust_.

“Agent Rossi?” Garcia tapped on the door and poked her head in.

“Hello Garcia.” Dave looked up from his files. “I thought I told you that Dave was fine.”

“Its gonna take some time.” Garcia came in and closed the door. “Maybe it wouldn’t have if you hadn’t burst into my apartment when I was in my skivvies but we’ll never know, will we?”

Her facial expression was just as open and jovial as always. David Rossi could admit that the tech analyst intrigued him. The clothes and accessories were eccentric, true, but that was just armor. He wondered about Penelope Garcia. He’d only been back in the BAU for a few months; there was time to get to know the team better. Team was still a foreign concept to him when it came to profiling though he was finding his place in it. It worked, Rossi saw the results with his own eyes, but it still took some getting used to.

“Your robe was very…Penelope.” Dave said grinning.

“Thank you sir. I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here.”

“The company of an intriguing woman may be unexpected but it’s never unpleasant.”

“Who said that?” She asked.

“David Rossi and you can quote me.”

“Welcome to the 21st century sir.” Garcia held out her hand. She had Rossi’s PDA and his iPhone.

“You finished them? I just gave them to you the day before yesterday.”

“I know; sorry for the delay. Gideon’s power cord died and then…”

“Wait, Gideon?” Rossi raised an eyebrow.

“He’s my laptop, well one of them. He’s the purple sparkly one.”

“You named your laptop, the purple sparkly one, after Jason Gideon?”

“As soon as I saw him I thought of Agent Gideon.” Garcia shrugged. “Sometimes its fate and you have to roll with it.”

“And sometimes it’s something else entirely.” Dave replied.

“Anyway, we had to get Gideon a new power cord so I did all the transfers I could phone to phone first. Then the boy and I had a fun trip to Best Buy in which he contemplated selling hemoglobin to buy the new Alien Warfare: Desolation Planet. I refused to let him do it; I know a guy who can get me anything I need…real cheap.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. You really don’t have to explain how you did what you did with my phones. Surely I’ll have no idea what you're talking about.”

“I like your nod and smile though.” Garcia said. “It’s quite believable.”

“I've been perfecting it over 53 years, what can I say.”

“You can say thanks Garcia, your genius is unparalleled.”

Rossi repeated it, taking his two phones. He’s actually been reading the directions and they were in a language that he understood. Coming into the 21st century might not be as painful as he first envisioned. There would always be a place for his notebooks. Nothing compared to gripping a pen in his hand and watching his thoughts form on paper.

Still, sometimes life moved faster than pen and paper and Rossi had to move with it. He wasn’t a retiree anymore. He thanked Garcia once more for her help. She smiled, nodded, and moved toward the door. Her hand was on the knob when she turned back.

“Is something the matter?” Dave asked.

“Well sir…”

“Garcia,” He cringed.

“I'm sorry, Agent Rossi…oh whatever. There were some photos in your phone memory. I don’t know why they didn’t save to the photo card because it wasn’t full but there were, um, photos.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

“Well, the photos were…”

“Porn?” Rossi asked grinning.

“They were very casual shots of Section Chief Strauss. They were intimately casual.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“I converted them and saved them to the memory card. It might be a good idea to save them to a flash drive and take them off the phone altogether.”

“That’s good advice, Penelope, thank you. I didn’t intend for you, or anyone, to see those. It wasn’t because I was ashamed.”

“I would never put ashamed and David Rossi in the same sentence, sir. I just wanted to tell you I knew. I don’t like hiding things from my profilers. I also don’t tell their business. I have to protect you guys.”

“It’s not a secret.” Dave replied, hardly believing the words coming out of his mouth.

“Alright.” She nodded.

“I mean that, Penelope. It’s certainly personal but not a secret.”

“I understand; we’re allowed personal lives. You don’t have to explain anything to me. Can I just say though, she has an amazing smile. She looked…happy.”

“She was.” He said. “She is, I think.”

“OK, well, that’s all.”

“Thanks. And lunch is on me in the near future.”

She nodded and left his office. Dave took the iPhone and pressed the picture of the camera. He had four photos, which he opened. The first was Erin relaxing on his couch with Mudgie. She wore a pleasant smile and the dog looked happy too. The second picture had her completely covering her face. He could tell, even behind her hands and perfectly manicured nails that she was smiling.

In the third Erin only wore his dress shirt. She held her bed pillow to her chest and was actually licking her tongue out. He loved that picture; had to find a way to make it into a real photograph. He needed to hold it in his hands. The last picture was the two of them. He was kissing her cheek and Erin was in the middle of laughing. They had been tipsy when he took it.

He remembered Erin hid the phone from him when it turned sexy…she didn’t want Dave taking pictures or video. She mentioned something about Grannies Gone Wild. Erin Strauss wasn’t a grandmother yet but she surely was wild sometimes. He loved that side of her. There was a lot of laughter that night, which they both needed. Closing the photo album, Dave pressed a number on the phone. It rang three times; he thought it might go to voicemail.

“Strauss.”

“When you answer the phone that way I imagine you're dressed like a headmistress and have a yard stick ready because I've been a bad boy.”

“And when you mention yard sticks electricity courses through my bloodstream. Hello, David.”

“Hi. I really want to see you tonight. Maybe we could have a late dinner. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a good idea. I know I've been…”

“It’s alright, Erin. We both know the pressure you're under right now. This is about dinner; we’ll eat and we’ll talk. I really want to talk to you.”

“What do you want to talk about?” She asked.

“Anything that comes to mind. You’ve yet to tell me your favorite childhood movie or why the nape of your neck is so sensitive.”

“You really care about that?”

“That is important information.” Dave replied. “Everything I find out about you is important.”

“No its not.” She said.

“But you're smiling right now, aren’t you?”

“How do you know that, Agent Rossi?”

“I know you.”

“David?”

“Hmm?”

“We could just skip dinner.” Erin said.

“You're not hungry?” Dave asked.

“I'm starving as a matter of fact. I'm ravenous. We’ll have a late night snack.”

“You're a bad girl, Erin. You might be a bad influence on a good guy like me.”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“Can I take pictures when I do?”

Erin laughed and it filled Dave’s belly with butterflies. She had the most beautiful laugh. He had no idea how she could balance the Erin he saw in private with the public persona of Agent Strauss. It was no wonder she felt so fractured…she was a psychiatrist’s dream.

That didn’t matter to him right now. Well, it did but Dave wanted to be a part of the solution. He wanted to save her. Oh dear God, the man was doomed. Who was going to save him?

“Hang up the telephone and come to me, David Rossi.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I've been thinking about you Erin; I missed you. I knew you had to go through what you were going through but I didn’t like the idea of you doing it alone.”

“I've missed you too. We’ll talk when you get here. Drive safely.”

Dave said he would before ending the call. He tidied up his desk, took his bag, and headed to the elevator. The bullpen was practically empty. Hotch was still in his office but that was nothing new. He didn’t know what was wrong with his old friend. Anyone with half a brain figured out quickly that the Unit Chief wasn’t quite alone anymore. Yet he still insisted on working until he nearly fell over.

Dave was a workaholic too; he always had been. Still, there were times when the pull of something else entirely controlled him. Pulling the phone off his hip as he walked into the elevator, Dave opened the photo album again. A happy balance could be struck; at least he really hoped it could. Dave believed anything was possible when he looked at her smile.

***

  



End file.
